‘You’re Cordially Invited’ movie review: Wedding woes

Reese Witherspoon, left, and Will Ferrell in a scene from ‘You’re Cordially Invited’
| Photo Credit: GLEN WILSON

By now, big stars teaming up for a streaming original film — mostly comedy, and made on a budget that makes you wonder about the recovery without a theatrical run — has become a mainstay. What’s been difficult is to shake off the tag that these films offer little entertainment compares to their big-screen counterparts. Films like Prime Video’sYou’re Cordially Invited tell you why this trend is, unfortunately, not a fad.

Director Nicholas Stoller, the maker behind comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek, The Five-Year Engagement and Bros, is back for another comedy headlined by powerhouses Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon. In You’re Cordially Invited, a single father, Jim (Will Ferrell), to get his daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan) married off, books a small inn on Palmetto Island where he got married years ago. Concurrently, television producer Margot (Reese Witherspoon) finds out that her sister Neve (Meredith Hagner) is planning on marrying and she volunteers to plan the wedding. She books the same Palmetto Island, where she and Neve visited their grandmother as children. Thanks to what can be only called a clerical error, both parties reach the island on the same day to learn about the double booking. While Jim and Margot initially decide to work it out by sharing the premises, their egos, insecurities, miscommunication, and many other mistakes play havoc.

Stoller specialises in comedies involving two principal characters and You’re Cordially Invited follows his template to the T. But while his earlier hits focused on friendships and romantic relationships, the latest film tries to be a heartening take on parents, kids, families and their values, irrespective of how messed up things can get internally. Calling You’re Cordially Invited a rom-com feels a bit of a stretch because the ‘rom’ part of it feels uneasily forced and the ‘com’ part needs to be a lot more… comical.

The plot gives ample space for humour to take centre stage; apart from the goof-up opportunities in this comedy of errors, the two parties and their family dynamics could have been a goldmine for gags. Margot is a reality show producer with 17 seasons of Altar Wars — which sounds like a game show that’s not for the faint of heart. Her family is a mixed bag of characters she could barely stand the sight of. On the flip side, Jim has to put up with Jenni’s ragtag group of friends, including a socially anxious person who shies away from phone calls. The grooms are no less by any means; one’s an exotic dancer while the other expresses his love with “the art of DJing”.

Reese Witherspoon, left, and Will Ferrell in a scene from ‘You’re Cordially Invited’
| Photo Credit:
GLEN WILSON

But You’re Cordially Invited never really puts its arsenal of tropes to good use as it relies on silly humour. The film’s idea of comedy is dunking a group of people into a lake, making a dad and daughter perform a song with sexual undertones, and making a character wrestle an alligator. The unintentional humour when the film finally concentrates on its core conflict does not help much either; there’s a scene where Jim overhears Margot trash-talking him and he moves from a well-lit corridor into darkness to “show” us that things will go south.

You’re Cordially Invited aims to be a light-hearted comedy of two families with unique perspectives on love and family bonds, fighting for common ground, quite literally. But despite some wonderful performances from Witherspoon and Ferrell in their unrestrained best, the film fails to do justice to its genre. You’re Cordially Invited tries to be a funny, laidback watch, but for a film about not one but two weddings, there are no better halves in this rom-com.

You’re Cordially Invited is currently streaming on Prime Video